I was
recently watching a video by evangelist, teacher and author Justin Peters and
he was talking about the new pope, Leo XIV (the first American pope) and the
pope’s first appearance addressing a crowd in Rome on May 8, 2025. You can find Justin’s video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g0hRRxC0nY
Within
Justin’s video, he plays a video clip of Leo’s first speech as pope to a large
crowd in Rome. In this clip, the pope’s
address was in Italian and he was speaking through an interpreter. At one point, we can hear the pope speaking
of Mary, the mother of Jesus, saying “… and let us ask for this special grace
from Mary, our God.”
It may have
gone unnoticed by many listening to the pope, but Justin points out the severe
error of using the phrase, “Mary, our God.”
In fairness
to the pope, Justin admits that he doesn’t speak Italian and he admits to the
possibility that he could be wrong
about what he heard. He also tries to
give the pope the benefit of the doubt and says that perhaps it was the fault
of the translator. The point is, he humbly
admits to not knowing for sure if the
new pope is calling Mary “God” or not.
He was never adamant about what exactly the pope said.
But many
people in the comment section of Justin Peters’ video were quick to take issue
with him, calling him out for his response to the pope, even though Justin was
very cautious about what he said in the video.
A few days
later, when he found out that he was wrong, Justin follows up with a second
video, which can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YKxwugxVvs
In this
video, Justin humbly apologizes to the pope when he found out that it was
indeed the translator’s mistake and
that the pope did not call Mary “God.” Pope Leo XIV actually called Mary our “Madre”
(“mother” in Italian). It was the
translator who got confused and probably conflated the terms, “Mary, our Mother”
with “Mother of God,” rendering it “Mary, our God.” I’m sure translators have a tough job keeping
up with the pope’s words, and it appears to be a legitimate slip of the tongue.
Having Said That…
Ok, having
said all the above, I agree with Justin Peters when he went on to say that even
though the pope did not call Mary “God,” Catholics are still guilty of worshipping Mary, and giving to her some
of the attributes of God, though they don’t want to admit it. No matter how innocent the pope may have been
with his statements in the video, it is a fact that the actions of many of the
Catholic people worldwide show that Mary is indeed worshipped.
Why would I
say that? Let me first say that it is
clear that Catholics are encouraged by the Catholic Church to pray to Mary (CCC
#2679), and most do indeed pray to her.
I also want to say that I cannot stress enough that prayer to ANYONE
other than God, Himself, is wrong, unbiblical and idolatrous. Nowhere – again, nowhere – in the God-breathed Scriptures do we find anyone given
permission or encouragement (from God) to pray to anyone other than God.
We have tons
of examples of prayer in the Bible. It
would seem that if it is permissible
to pray to Mary or to the “saints,” that we would expect to find examples of that in God’s Word. But we don’t.
The Bible gives us a clear pattern
of prayer to God alone. Remember, prayer
is an act of worship and to divorce
worship from prayer is to destroy the very essence of both terms. Therefore, once again, prayer to someone other
than God is not only unbiblical, it is blasphemous, as well. It is treating that person as though he/she
were God.
It is that
same old sin called idolatry that the
Old Testament Jews and their surrounding neighbors were guilty of (Exodus
20:3; 2 Kings 17:16). And the
punishment from God for that sin was severe (Deuteronomy 6:14-15; 17:1-5)
and God still hates it today. I know the
title of this article is provocative, but according to Scripture, it is the
truth.
Idolatry in the Catholic Catechism
Catholics
will say no, it is not worship, and therefore not idolatry, to pray to Mary and
the saints. But the Catechism of the
Catholic Church defines idolatry this way:
“Idolatry
not only refers to false pagan worship.
It remains a constant temptation to faith. Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not
God. Man commits idolatry whenever he
honors and reveres a creature in place of God, whether this be gods or demons
(for example, satanism), power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state, money, etc. Jesus says, ‘You cannot serve God and
mammon.’ Many martyrs died for not
adoring ‘the Beast’ refusing even to simulate such worship. Idolatry rejects the unique Lordship of God;
it is therefore incompatible with communion with God.” (CCC #2113)
You know, I
pretty much agree with this definition of idolatry and I would like to point
out a few things about it.
Note that
the Catechism above says that idolatry remains a “constant temptation to faith.” Well if that’s true, then why are Catholics
allowed to put up shrines to Mary all over the world (far more in number than
shrines to Jesus) and why are they encouraged to pray the rosary (which has many more prayers to Mary than to
Jesus)? Would not these things be a temptation
and a stumbling block to others? Aren’t
they an encouragement to go beyond
“veneration,” just as the Old Testament Jews did? Yes, indeed.
The
Catechism also says that idolatry is “divinizing” what is not God. To divinize is to deify someone/something; to
make someone/something divine. It treats
one as though he/she were God.
But isn’t it also divinizing to pray to Mary (as mentioned earlier)? And isn’t it divinizing when Mary is called
“Mediatrix,” “Co-redemptrix,” “Sovereign Lady,” “Sovereign Princess,”
“Immaculate,” “Queen of Heaven,” “the Cause of Our Joy,” “the salvation of our
people,” “having unlimited merit and power over all creatures,” “the dispenser
of all graces,” “the source of salvation,” “Gateway to Heaven,” “omnipotent to
save sinners,” and many, many other such
names? Yes, it is divinizing.
All these terms
are used by Catholics toward Mary (with no objection from the Church, I might
add) and all these are assigning attributes of divinity to a mere creature. It
is a fact that Catholics ascribe to Mary deific
attributes and deific powers.
Paragraph
2113 of the Catechism above also mentions Jesus saying, “You cannot serve God and mammon”
(Matthew 6:24), acknowledging that a person can indeed worship money
(and other things, like power, pleasure, ancestors, etc.). Just as one can misplace his love, trust and
devotion toward his money, so can he also misplace his love, trust and devotion
toward Mary, the saints and the angels.
I have never known anyone to pray
to his money, yet he could still be
worshipping it. But if one’s devotion
can be considered worship without
using prayer, then HOW MUCH MORE is it worship when prayer is involved, as with
Mary?
Furthermore,
the Catechism says that the martyrs refused “even to simulate such worship
[idolatry].” In other words, they dared
not even fake such worship in order to
save their lives! At the cost of
their lives, they avoided even the very appearance
of evil, as the apostle Paul encourages (1 Thessalonians 5:22). But using all these exalted names of Mary,
praying to Mary in the rosary, building Marian shrines, etc. – these are exactly
the types of things that the Catechism is warning about here – because, in
doing these, they are encouraging the appearance of evil (idolatry).
Lastly, the
Catechism above says that idolatry rejects the “unique Lordship of God.” I couldn’t agree more, but again, prayer to
Mary does exactly that – it intrudes
on His unique Lordship by allowing prayer to mere creatures! By definition, there IS no unique Lordship of
God if we can pray to others. According to the multitude of examples in the
Bible, prayer belongs to God alone.
“Whom have I in Heaven
but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.” (Psalm
73:25)
We will
continue with this important topic in Part 2 …
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